Welcome To A Bug Eat Bug World

You don’t have to rely on toxic and expensive chemicals to get rid of those nasty pests preying on your veggies. Good bugs or beneficials, and creating biodiversity in your gardens, can help you control pest outbreaks.

- Kapil Mandawewala

Recently, while tending to my terrace garden, I observed a purple sunbird fluttering in and out of my brinjal plants. I walked a little closer. The bird was picking out beetles that had recently begun infesting the plants. When the satiated sunbird flew away, I checked my plants. Only a couple of beetles remained. Such are the advantages of working with nature—not against it—to make your kitchen garden a success.

A few months earlier, I had placed a bird house in my garden. The sunbirds had made a nest in it because they were attracted to my large Madhumalti vine. So instead of spraying my eggplants with neem oil or pesticide, I simply increased my garden’s biodiversity. Nature, by definition, teems with a multiplicity of creatures and good and bad bugs, all suspended together in a fine balance. What we need to understand is that not all of these pests are a threat to your garden plants, and many of them are actually helpful in fighting off other plant predators. If we design our gardens keeping this balance in mind, pest problems become rare.

All About Good Bugs